Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1887-06-23
NY OPERA TOR.
BY W. H. s. ATKINSON.

M I UPERA IOR.
BY w. II. s. ATKINSON.
Some ten years ago was in the service
of Spotem & Co.. ono of the best known
detective firms in the West. Even 80 long
ago as that had achieved more than ordi-
nary fame as railroad detective, 30 that,
when a letter was received by the firm from
the General Manager of the Missouri River
Broad Guage Railway requesting the serv-
ices Of q "liye" man, was not at all sur
prised that Mr.. John Spotem should in
struct me to prepare at once to undertake
this especial business.
That afternoon was aboard the train,
on my way from Chicago to Omaha, and
next morning reported at railroad head
quarters.
The situation was explained to me by
the General Manager.
"We are being robbed right along, Mr..
Sharpe" said he, "by gang of thieves,
evidently with an expert at their head, and,
am afraid, with some of our people acting
in collusion with them. The freight trains
Notwithstanding that the trainmen have
orders to use extra vigilance, the thefts
still continue to go on. Nor nre they con-
fined to any particular section. For, while
one day robbery will be reported on the
west end of the road, two or three days
later will come news of q raid at the east
end, three hundred miles away. Mostly
dry goods and other equally valuable arti-
cles of merchandise are taken, but in such
quantities as to leave no doubt that many
men, and even teams, are in the employ of
the thieves"
More information was given me by the
official, and then left to go over the road,
SO as to enable me to understand the "layp
of the lnd and form plans for future
action.
Three days later again reported at
headquarters and suggested that 1 be in
stalled as (supposed) assistant trainmaster
ut Prairie Flower-where the company had
large shops and yards, midway between
Omaha and the western terminus of the
railway. I also suggested sending for two
trusty assistants from Chicago-one to
travel east and the other west of me-and,
lastly, requested the services Of telegraph
operator. For, though / understood teleg-
rapby myself, wished to have an operator
who could receive messages whether was
present OF absent.
To all my plass the General Manager as
sented. and was soon located at Prairie
Flower.
Two weeks passed, during which time
We made very little progress, although
several robberies were reported. Ilearned
enough to convince me that jim Ball,
notorious crook who formerly worked"
several Illinois railroads, had a finger in
this apie." And that was almost all 1 did
learn the first two weeks. l mistrusted my
operator, too. l did not actually detect him
in any crookedness, but did not like his
looks-the moro so after discovered that
he had been dismissed from one of the very
Illinois railroads which Jim Ball had made
to suffer. So decided to dismiss him and
advertised for q lady operator. thought
if took lady, and especially one who
was unconnected with the railroads, /
should be on the safe side and have more
confidence in the correctness of messages
received and dispatched. Within week
had installed at the operators table as
pretty specimen Of young womanhood as
ever set eyes upon. She was, perhaps,
twenty-five or three years of age, was of
medium size, well-educated, and smart,
and looked as strong and hearty as she
WINS pretty.
In forty-eight hours was desperately in
love with her. In another forty eight
hours had made fool of myself (even
detectives, being men, occasionally act the
fooD, offered her my hand and heart, and
was refused; though that fact did not
seriously discourage me.
Meanwhile the robbers were playing
fast and loose with me, as we'll as with the
company's property. wasyexed, because
had hoped to anail" the culprits in n
much shorter time than had already elapsed
since / undertook the task. even began
to suspect my own espsoial assistants of
being unfaithful; for, Just as sure as re-
ceiyed n message from one of them, giving
information of an expected raid at a GER
place with officers) would q robbery take
place in an entirely opposite direction.
When man is foiled in the main
object, for the time-being, of
his life is bad enough;
but when he is also in love it goes rather
hardly with him. was greatly worried
and hardly knew what course to pursue.
Miss Avery, my operator, noticed my
anxiety and was very kind to me-relieving
r,f Ill nh
take, such as letter-writing, etc. Apart
from our duties she was also very pleasant.
She seemed SO well pleased to spend much
of her time soff duty" in my company that
began to think my 4loye affair" would
come out all right yet.
One day, when had been at Prairie
Flower about a month, as sat at my desk,
writing, / heard the click-click Of the tele-
graph instrument. / have said that was
myself an operator, and, though did not
often handle the instrument, did on this
occasion listen to the message as it was
clicked over the wire. This is what heard:
"Red Greek tonight OF nine. for number
twenty-tvo. LAwRENcE.r z
Lawrence was my man whose territory
was the eastern end of the railroad.
In minute or so Miss Avery handed me
her official transcription of the message, on
slip Of paper
Rock Creek tonight at nino. for number
thirty-two. LAWRENCE"
Tread and read the message as writ
ten out by my operator. Could I Ipossibly
be SO much out of practice as to mistake
Red for Rock and t,eenty- taoo for thirty
t,oo? 1t made all the difference in the
world. Thore was Red Creek station and
also Rock Creek station, but they were
ninety miles apart; the number Of the train,S
too, was different 10 what l thought I
heard.
Iwas about tired of all this misunder-